Andrzej Kowerski (; 18 May 1912 in

Łabunie Łabunie is a village in Zamość County, Lublin Voivodeship, in southeastern Poland. It is the seat of the gmina (administrative district) called Gmina Łabunie. It lies some southeast of Zamość and southeast of the regional capital, Lublin. ...

Zamość County __NOTOC__ Zamość County ( pl, powiat zamojski) is a unit of territorial administration and local government (powiat) in Lublin Voivodeship, eastern Poland. It was established on January 1, 1999, as a result of the Polish local government reforms ...

, Lublin Province, eastern

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

– 8 December 1988 in

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...

) was a

Polish Army The Land Forces () are the land forces of the Polish Armed Forces. They currently contain some 62,000 active personnel and form many components of the European Union and NATO deployments around the world. Poland's recorded military history stret ...

officer and SOE agent during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. From 1941 he used the ''

nom de guerre A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person or group assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true name (orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individua ...

'' Andrew Kennedy.

Life

Before the

war War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regular o ...

Kowerski lost a part of one leg in a hunting accident. During the German

invasion of Poland The invasion of Poland (1 September – 6 October 1939) was a joint attack on the Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union which marked the beginning of World War II. The German invasion began on 1 September 1939, one week aft ...

in September 1939, Lieutenant Kowerski fought as a member of Poland's 10th Motorized Cavalry Brigade, commanded by Col.

Stanisław Maczek Lieutenant General Stanisław Maczek (; 31 March 1892 – 11 December 1994) was a Polish tank commander of World War II, whose division was instrumental in the Allied liberation of France, closing the Falaise pocket, resulting in the destructio ...

, winning his country's highest military decoration, the ''

Virtuti Militari The War Order of Virtuti Militari (Latin: ''"For Military Virtue"'', pl, Order Wojenny Virtuti Militari) is Poland's highest military decoration for heroism and courage in the face of the enemy at war. It was created in 1792 by Polish King Stan ...

''. When

Soviet forces The Soviet Armed Forces, the Armed Forces of the Soviet Union and as the Red Army (, Вооружённые Силы Советского Союза), were the armed forces of the Russian SFSR (1917–1922), the Soviet Union (1922–1991), and th ...

invaded eastern Poland on September 17, forcing Poland's government to evacuate south into

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...

, Kowerski and his "Black Brigade" (so called after their black leather jackets) evacuated to neighboring

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia a ...

. There he was involved in covert activities, exfiltrating interned Polish, and other Allied, military personnel out of Hungary. When Kowerski subsequently worked for British Intelligence and the

Special Operations Executive The Special Operations Executive (SOE) was a secret British World War II organisation. It was officially formed on 22 July 1940 under Minister of Economic Warfare Hugh Dalton, from the amalgamation of three existing secret organisations. Its pu ...

, he was given the cover name "Andrew Kennedy." Having lost part of a leg, he became the first disabled man to complete SOE's parachute training. (His lover,

Krystyna Skarbek Maria Krystyna Janina Skarbek, (, ; 1 May 1908 – 15 June 1952), also known as Christine Granville, was a Polish agent of the British Special Operations Executive (SOE) during the Second World War. She became celebrated for her daring exploi ...

, aka Christine Granville, was the longest serving female agent of SOE and one of its most prominent.)

Disappearance of Reichsbank and Abwehr reserves

Between 1952 and 1954, Kowerski joined up with his friend

W. Stanley Moss Ivan William Stanley Moss MC (15 June 1921 – 9 August 1965), commonly known as W. Stanley Moss or Billy Moss, was a British army officer in World War II, and later a successful writer, broadcaster, journalist and traveller. He served with t ...

to investigate a mystery of the final days of the Third Reich. In April and May 1945, the remaining reserves of the

Reichsbank The ''Reichsbank'' (; 'Bank of the Reich, Bank of the Realm') was the central bank of the German Reich from 1876 until 1945. History until 1933 The Reichsbank was founded on 1 January 1876, shortly after the establishment of the German Empi ...

– gold (730 bars), cash (6 large sacks), and precious stones and metals such as platinum (25 sealed boxes) – were dispatched by

Walther Funk Walther Funk (18 August 1890 – 31 May 1960) was a German economist and Nazi official who served as Reich Minister for Economic Affairs (1938–1945) and president of Reichsbank (1939–1945). During his incumbency, he oversaw the mobili ...

to be buried on the Klausenhof Mountain at Einsiedl in Bavaria, where the final German resistance was to be concentrated. Similarly the

Abwehr The ''Abwehr'' (German for ''resistance'' or ''defence'', but the word usually means ''counterintelligence'' in a military context; ) was the German military-intelligence service for the ''Reichswehr'' and the ''Wehrmacht'' from 1920 to 1944. A ...

cash reserves were hidden nearby in

Garmisch-Partenkirchen Garmisch-Partenkirchen (; Bavarian: ''Garmasch-Partakurch''), nicknamed Ga-Pa, is an Alpine ski town in Bavaria, southern Germany. It is the seat of government of the district of Garmisch-Partenkirchen (abbreviated ''GAP''), in the O ...

. Shortly after the American forces overran the area, the reserves and money disappeared.Moss, W. Stanley, ''Gold Is Where You Hide It; What Happened to the Reichsbank Treasure?'', Andre Deutsch 1959 Moss and Kennedy travelled back and forth across Germany and into Switzerland and corresponded with fugitives in Argentina, to research what had happened. The disappearance of Major Martin Borg, the US Military Governor of Garmisch-Partenkirchen at the time, has not been explained. Later, Moss and Kennedy went on to uncover the consequences of

Heinrich Himmler Heinrich Luitpold Himmler (; 7 October 1900 – 23 May 1945) was of the (Protection Squadron; SS), and a leading member of the Nazi Party of Germany. Himmler was one of the most powerful men in Nazi Germany and a main architect of th ...

’s order of 28 October 1939, which confirmed the

Lebensborn Lebensborn e.V. (literally: "Fount of Life") was an SS-initiated, state-supported, registered association in Nazi Germany with the stated goal of increasing the number of children born who met the Nazi standards of "racially pure" and "healt ...

programme. They researched what had become of the children born as a result of the order.

Death and burial

Kowerski died from cancer in

, Germany, in December 1988. His ashes were flown to London and interred at the foot of Skarbek's grave in

St Mary's Roman Catholic Cemetery St Mary's Catholic Cemetery is located on Harrow Road, Kensal Green in London, England. It has its own Catholic chapel. History Established in 1858, the site was built next door to Kensal Green Cemetery. It is the final resting place for m ...

Kensal Green Kensal Green is an area in north-west London. It lies mainly in the London Borough of Brent, with a small part to the south within Kensington and Chelsea. Kensal Green is located on the Harrow Road, about miles from Charing Cross. To the w ...

, northwest London.C. Mulley, ''The Spy Who Loved'', p. 345.

Notes

References

* Madeleine Masson, ''Christine: a Search for Christine Granville, G.M., O.B.E., Croix de Guerre...'', London, Hamish Hamilton, 1975 (republished by Virago, 2005). * Jan Larecki, ''Krystyna Skarbek: agentka o wielu twarzach'' (Krystyna Skarbek: Agent with Many Faces), Warsaw, Książka i Wiedza, 2008, .

External links